Tua Tagovailoa – December 7, 2022
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Wednesday, December 7, 2022
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(What’s it like being back on like a college campus?) – “Yeah, it’s cool. Just kind of scoping the area a little, it does feel a little weird just because you see there are students that are still in school and are finishing classes late in the afternoon and then also late at night. So it gives some flashbacks of being in college, but I think it’s really, really cool what UCLA has here with the hotel that we’re able to stay in and then the view with their field and their state-of-the-art facility. I think as a team, we’re very fortunate to be staying here.”
(When you reviewed the San Francisco tape, what did you take away as the biggest concern to fix this week?) – “I would say my spot in the pocket. There were many points in the game that I wasn’t in the spot that I told the guys up front I would be in and so therefore, I kind of put myself in bad situations. So doing that and then there were also some plays that were missed that I wish I could get back. I can’t be playing wishful football. This game, we’ll hopefully take everything that the Chargers give us and take advantage of our opportunities.”
(I’m curious, I know this is the second time that you’re facing a team led by QB Justin Herbert at quarterback. I was just curious, what’s the relationship obviously same draft class, fifth and sixth picks. Is there any relationship there?) – “I would say I haven’t communicated with Justin (Herbert). I never really knew him on a personal level. I knew of him in college. I mean, he’s been a baller, and then you also look at his career thus far in the NFL and he continues to do really great things. He’s a great player. You can’t say anything bad about this guy. He’s good. He can run, he can throw, he can throw on the run. I mean, he can do a lot of things and it’s pretty remarkable. I have nothing but respect for him and his game too.”
(I don’t have to tell you that because of where you were drafted and where QB Justin Herbert was drafted, people are always going to compare you two and match up your stats against his. Is that something you accept? Is that something you think is a bogus comparison? How do you feel about it?) – “I feel that I’ve been very blessed to have gotten chosen, regardless of if I got chosen before him or after him. I’m just happy to be where I’m at. I don’t think anything of it. I know everyone else outside of our building and fans want to make speculations about that, but for me, I’m just very fortunate, very blessed to be in this position. I’ll let everyone else handle the talking with that. That’s my stance on it.”
(Is there any difference in how you feel after a game like Sunday’s where plays were there and you guys just missed them and weren’t clicking versus knowing there were no plays there at all?) – “Yes, because there’s a lot of things you can improve on. There’s areas of work that you thought maybe you had down that, ‘Hey, reality check. Here’s what the deal is.’ So it was good for all of us offensively to see the mistakes, to talk about the mistakes. We’re just looking to learn from that and hopefully transition into a really good week of practice this week and prepare for a good Chargers team.”
(You’ve talked about this, so forgive me for asking again, but compared to last year, what’s the biggest single change that you can attribute your great success to?) – “Oh, man. I would say there’s not a single thing. There’s many things. Just starting with the top, the belief our head coach has in as in me, the belief that our organization has in me – not just has but had in me – and continues to have. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain all the things that go on behind the scenes. There’s been a lot of support from when I came here, prior to coaches and anything. But my teammates, the amount of support that they show me.”
(What about the coach?) – “What do you mean?”
(What kind of support?) – “Our coach? Shoot, (I have had) many conversations with our head coach. Like I said before, he ended up making a 700-play tape like a highlight tape of things that he thought I did really, really well of the entire last season. He just continues to be overly positive with how he communicates with me and how he communicates with all of the guys on the team. But it’s not just our coaches, it’s also my teammates, the staff and like I said, the organization.”
(When you were considering which college to go to, did you ever think you’d might end up at one of the LA schools?) – “Yeah, I thought I was going to go to USC. I thought I was going to be a ‘Fight on Trojan,’ but my dad wanted me to go to Alabama. It was always a dream of mine to go to USC, because in Hawaii, we normally get the Pac-12 games. And when I was young growing up, USC was the hot team here on the west coast. So when I ended up getting an offer in high school, it was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is crazy.’ I can’t say that I regret going to Alabama, because I know I wouldn’t be in the position that I’m in now if I hadn’t gone there and experienced what I did. But I would have went to USC.”
(What were you feeling when you watched that 700-play tape?) – “I didn’t watch the whole 700-play tape. There’s no way I was going to watch all 700. (laughter) I probably only got to like 90 with him. It was a lot of hours of one play, just 14 minutes on just this one play and just talking about it like, ‘Wow, what did you see on this? Why did you guys do this?’ It was a lot of conversation, and I thought the coolest thing was like nothing that I said within the play or whatever could be wrong. He really just wanted to know how we operated that or got that done. If there were some nuances that he felt could be fixed, he would end up doing that. So that’s all that was. We didn’t watch the whole 700, but he scrolled down and I saw 700-something. It might have been more – I’m just saying 700. (laughter)”
(Did you happen to catch that you’re leading the Pro Bowl voting right now? What would that mean to you?) – “That’s news to me. That’s first time I’m hearing it. You know, that’s awesome. That would mean the world to be recognized for something like that in a league that’s really tough and the competition is really tough and the guys are really good. It’d mean the world. Coming into my third year and experiencing a lot of things that I’ve had to experience and go through, that’d be awesome.”
(What does it say about T Terron Armstead that we saw him today just putting in the work that he can and trying to fight to be out there for you guys?) – “He’s a veteran that he always wants to be out there. It killed him watching from the sideline. Every time we came off and didn’t score, he’d always come to me, ask me what I’m seeing so that he could relay it to the guys. He would relay something from the o-line to me and kind of ask me, ‘Hey, if you could just stay in this spot more than this spot, just because this guy is going to need a little more help.’ So he’s kind of the visionary for the guys up front. He’s the captain for those guys up there, and we all respect him. So just seeing how much this means to him, football and what he’s doing to try to get back out there to play with us, it’s pretty remarkable. I think this is his 10th year or 11th year, and he’s up there in the trenches – that’s hard. That’s hard, so for him to have gone through all the challenges that he’s gone through and continuing to go through, you have to be strong minded.”
(How is the ankle doing?) – “At this point of the season, it’s as good as it’s going to get.”
(The team recently signed T Eric Fisher. I know he’s working with the offensive line, but is there anything in particular you’re doing with him to speed understand?) – “No, not necessarily. I got to meet him when we ended up signing him, just kind of two ships passing in the night going into meetings. But he was in the o-line meeting with our o-line coaches, just trying to get dialed in there. I went and introduced myself. I mean, the dude is a tank. He’s big. He’s big.”
(I’m going to be sitting down with LB Manti Te’o later this week, and I think you guys have a relationship. Just growing up in Hawaii with him, knowing how big of a high school story he was and the stuff he did at Notre Dame, when you were younger looking at him, what did you think about him and just kind of what he meant?) – “When I was little, I think I can recall maybe like in the sixth grade, Manti (Te’o) was the biggest thing coming out of Hawaii. I think there was a – the first game I got to go and watch him play was like mainlanders came to Hawaii to play their best guys from the mainland came to play the best from Hawaii, I guess. Or I don’t even know what bowl that was. I was like in sixth grade. First play, I think the opposing team throws a slant and Manti just smokes this dude. It was the coolest thing to see just, the reaction of the fans, how big he was. (laughter) When you’re young and you’re looking at someone like that, you’re thinking they’re the biggest people in the world. When I would train outside of where I was in high school, I got to see some instances where he was training as well at the same spot. Then you fast forward to me going to Alabama, doing what I did there and him being able to reach out, I thought that was the coolest thing and how like a lot of us people from Hawaii, we all try to stick together. That’s my Uce. That’s my man. I have the utmost respect for him. I love him too.”
(When you look at LB Manti Te’o now, his career is over. You saw the Netflix special and just how much that really did. When you think about him now and everything he’s been through and what he’s become, what are your thoughts on that?) – “I’m proud of him. If you go and ask Manti (Te’o), because every time he talks to me, he always says this. He always tells me, ‘Man, I feel like you’re my real little brother. Every time I see you, I feel like we have this instant connection because of how we were raised from our parents, the journey that we had to go through to get to where we’re at.’ I’m not saying that to make myself feel good, but it’s really cool when someone like me at a young age looked up to someone like him, and to hear those words said to me, that’s freaking cool. But like I said, I have the utmost respect. I’ll probably call him after this and tell him that I was putting trash on his name. (laughter)”
